Finding Home
by HermioneG7
Summary: [Findinf Nemo]When the tank gang finally get into the ocean, Gill takes them to his home before he was captured. When he gets there, something goes wrong and Gill is no longer a fish. Is becoming a human part of Gill's destany or just an accident?
1. Gill's Tale Part I

Finding Home  
  
(NOTE: The beginning might be alittle boring.....)  
  
Chapter One: Gill's Tale Part I  
  
"Come on Peach! You can do it!" yelled the fish from down in the water.  
  
"That's the shortest red light I've ever seen!" shouted the little starfish before she jumped into the water. Her other friends from the tank cheered. Bloat puffed up, then he deflated himself.  
  
They were all in plastic bags, floating on top of the water.  
  
"Now what?" asked Bloat.  
  
"I'll tell you what we're going to do," said Gill, looking up at a bird flying high in the sky. "HEY NIGEL! NIGEL!!!!!!!" Gill started to yell at the bird.  
  
"Is that Nigel? I can't tell." said Gurgle.  
  
"Whoa you finally got out, did ya? Well, now what?" said Nigel as he flew down.  
  
"Can you poke up out of these bags?"  
  
"Why, of course I can!" Nigel took each of the bags in his beak and ripped open the top.  
  
"Finally!" Gill said to himself and he flopped out and fell into the ocean.  
  
"It is big and blue! Just like I said," said Bubbles. "Where are the bubbles?"  
  
"Wow it's mighty deep!" said Peach, sticking onto a nearby rock.  
  
"It's filled with germs!" said Gurgle, sounding worried.  
  
"You sound like you're worried." said Gill, swimming down into the deep ocean.  
  
"Well, I'm not worried." said Bloat.  
  
"Then follow me." said Gill, swimming still deeper excitedly.  
  
"Take care! We'll meet again!" said Nigel, and he flew away.  
  
The fish swam close to Gill, since he seemed to be the only one who knew about the ocean.  
  
"Where are we going, Gill?" asked Deb. "And where did Flo go?"  
  
"Don't worry guys. We're going home." Gill seemed so absorbed in his own world that he rarely talked as he swam along.  
  
As they came down to the bottom, they spotted a school of fish all swimming in the same direction. It looked just like the road they had crossed in their plastic bags.  
  
"Gill, are you sure you know where you're going? I mean, this is a pretty big place." said Deb.  
  
"Of course he does." said Jacques, who was swimming in back of them all.  
  
"Yes, I do know where we're going. But it's going to be a long way." Gill's face was lit with excitement.  
  
"Gill's really excited about this, isn't he?" said Bloat.  
  
"Well, he did spend most of his time trying to escape, didn't he?" said Peach.  
  
"Well, yeah, but this doesn't seem that different from the fish take. Except it's bigger."  
  
"And dirtier." pointed out Gurgle.  
  
Gill wasn't listening. He plunged right into the school of fish and started to follow them. He seemed to be concentrating hard.  
  
'Hey, Gill, wait up!" shouted Bloat.  
  
Hours went by.  
  
"How far is this place we're going to?" Deb finally asked.  
  
"Not far now....not far now....." said Gill, still staring ahead, the ocean reflecting in his eyes.  
  
They passed many places on their way, and finally Bloat changed his mind.  
  
"This is NOTHING like the fish tank." he said excitedly.  
  
Finally Gill stopped.  
  
"What is it Gill? Are we there yet?" asked Bloat, who puffed up when a scary looking fish swam by.  
  
Gill didn't answer at first. He just kept swimming slowly around in circles, looking about him.  
  
'HOLD IT! Gill, you haven't told us anything useful since we fell into this thing. I demand to know where you're taking us." said Gurgle. Gill stopped swimming, and was looking bewildered. Then he finally just grinned. "I lived in here before. I had a home, you know." Then he continued to swim forward.  
  
"So that's why he's been so eager to go. He's going back to his home. He must miss it a lot." said Deb.  
  
The other fish agreed.  
  
They just followed Gill without another word.  
  
*  
  
Soon it became dark and they stopped to rest. While the other fish went to sleep, Gill stayed awake, swimming back and forth.  
  
"Is she still there? What if she left? Where would se go? What if she found someone else?" suddenly Gill gasped between his questions. "What is she killed herself?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"AGGGH!" Gill whirled around, but only saw his friends. "I thought you were asleep!"  
  
"We couldn't. You were talking to much." said Bloat.  
  
"Well, who is it you were talking about?" asked Bubbles. Gill suddenly looked embarrassed.  
  
"Oh, just an old friend."  
  
"A she, are they?" said Peach, mysteriously.  
  
Gill didn't say anything.  
  
"Oh come on! We heard you rambling over her to yourself. Who is she?" urged on Gurgle.  
  
'"Please tell us?" begged Bloat.  
  
"No, no. She's just a friend I knew when I was younger......"  
  
"Before you were captured?"  
  
His friends were sounding him now, in the darkness, but Gill could still see them swaying back and forth.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I've never seen this kind of side to you, Gill." said Peach, laughing.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You're so shy now. You should see yourself."  
  
Gill looked down at the sand, still not saying anything.  
  
"Oh, let's stop embarrassing the guy and get some sleep." said Bloat, and Gill was secretly glad. He still didn't fall asleep though.  
  
*  
  
"We're almost there!" Gill cried behind him as he sped up towards the city they were heading to.  
  
"Hey wait up!" yelled Bubbles.  
  
"Let him go as fast as he wants." said Peach, grinning.  
  
The city was beautiful. Every fish there was a different color, and the seaweed was greener than any color green they had ever seen, and the water was the cleanest water in the sea. No wonder Gill missed it so much.  
  
"Gill! Hey guys! Gill's back!" shouted one of the fish. All of a sudden gill was attacked by more than 5 fish.  
  
"Good to have you back, old buddy!" a gold fish exclaimed.  
  
The other fish from the tank just stood nearby, watching. Peach grinned. "I'm glad he was missed as much as he missed them." she said.  
  
"Which one do you think is the fish he was talking about last night?" Gurgle asked them. They just shrugged.  
  
"There's no females there....." pointed out Bloat, started to swim towards a bunch of other puffer fish.  
  
"I feel so bad now! Gill must have had a great life here." said Deb. Suddenly a fish that looked exactly like her swam by. "FLO! There you are! Where have you been?"  
  
The fish turned to her, looking suddenly scared, but also gave Flo a look like she was crazy.  
  
"Who's Flo? And do I know you?" she said.  
  
"I'm your sister!" said Deb, looking and sounding a little hurt.  
  
"So, where's Michelle?" Gill asked, looking around the crowd of fish. His friends suddenly froze. Only their eyes were moving.  
  
Gill's grin vanished. "What? What is it?"  
  
His friends didn't answer for a moment. Then one of them said, "she's not here right now."  
  
Gill eyed them. 'What do you mean?"  
  
"Who's Michelle?" said Gurgle, swimming over to them.  
  
"Who are YOU?" asked the gold fish.  
  
"These are the other fish from the tank. That's Gurgle, That's Deb, that's Peach, over there is Bloat (Bloat was puffing up with a mixture of female and male puffer fish), there's Bubbles, and....where's Jacques?"  
  
"Bonjour." said a voice from behind them as the crab swam towards them.  
  
"Er.......yeah.......bonjour....." said the gold fish uncertainly. "I'm Brian."  
  
(I'm not going to introduce the others I'm horrible at picking out names.....especially for fish.)  
  
"Yeah, so who's Michelle?" repeated Gurgle. Brian looked slightly taken aback.  
  
"She's just a friend of mine." Gill said quickly.  
  
"More like a GIRLFRIEND." said Brian, chuckling.  
  
"Uh huh......" said Gurgle, also letting out a giggle. Gill gave them all a look, and they became quiet. Gill seemed to have that affect on people. I mean fish.  
  
Gill turned back to Brian. "Where is she, then?"  
  
"Well," Brian began worriedly. "Last time we saw her she was in that cave you two found."  
  
Gill looked thoughtful. "And when was the last time you saw her?"  
  
Brian gulped. "Just after you were taken."  
  
Gill's thoughtful look turned into sorrow. "You mean, she disappeared?"  
  
Brian nodded sadly.  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry......" he heard Peach say. Gill didn't say anything, then he turned his gaze over to a nearby cluster of seaweed. "I'm gonna find her." he said, then she sped into the seaweed.  
  
*  
  
Gill didn't know if they were following him, but he didn't care. He swam on, twisting and turning through the familiar trail Michelle and he had made when they were young. It would be hard for the others to follow him.  
  
As he was swimming, a flashback drifted into his mind:  
  
"Gill....Gill look out!" Michelle had been shouting.  
  
"What?" but Gill was too late. A huge net surrounded him and he was caught.  
  
"GILL! GILL!" he heard her screaming.  
  
"MICHELLE!" Gill had tried to scream. He remembered thrashing about, trying to break free.  
  
He saw Michelle reaching out to him, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He just grabbed her outstretched fin, and she pulled him. But the net was also pulling up, and his fin slipped, and he had been taken away.  
  
Gill shook the memory away, and kept swimming. But he couldn't help remembering the last thing he had said.  
  
"Wait for me! I'll get back!"  
  
Gill tried to shake it away. Had Michelle heard him?  
  
He reached the cave without even realizing it and almost crashed into the side. He ignored the pain and rushed into the cave. It was just like he remembered.  
  
It was dark, just as before, and there was still that small light way in the back than neither him nor Michelle had been brave enough to go and see what it was. Well, they were, but Gill was sure both of them just wanted to see the other one do it, so neither of them went themselves. Gill suddenly regretted it.  
  
He slowed down, gazing into the light. He hesitated, then he raced toward it.  
  
It was the end of the cave, and at first Gill thought it was only a rock. But then he realized it wasn't just a rock. It was a rock with a VERY bright and shiny thing on top. He shielded his eyes, and went to look at it.  
  
It was a crystal, in fact. It was bluish pink, and seemed to light the whole cave from back here. He was drawn to it's light. He went to touch it, and was horrified as the light grew brighter until he couldn't see a thing and was sure he had gone blind. He got even more afraid as the cave started to tumble and collapse, and the ground started to shake. The water around him started to swirl around him, and he kept spinning and spinning and spinning, and then suddenly he was shot out of the water, and the last thing he heard was himself scream.  
  
*  
  
Gill opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, which was somehow flat. He wasn't under water, but he could breathe. All above him was blue, but it was the sky, not the water. He sat up. He was sitting on a beach. He looked down at his fins, which were now arms and hands. His tale was now turned to two legs. He was wearing human clothes, and had human hair. One of his arms was cut up from where Gill's bad fin had been. His face had cuts as well.  
  
It took him a minute to realize a female human was sitting next to him, looking at him worriedly.  
  
"AGHHHHHHHHHH!"  
  
"Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you!" the girl said, standing up, then helping Gill to his feet, though Gill fell right back down. He wasn't used to using feet.  
  
"No.... You didn't scare me.....I just don't.........Where am I?" Gill asked. He realized he was breathing hard.  
  
"New York City." answered the girl, reaching out her hand to help him up.  
  
"New York City? How......how did I get here from Sydney?"  
  
The girl shook her head. "I don't know. You flew out of the water screaming, then you were just laying there. I came out to save you." she helped him up again, but Gill wobbled and fell back down.  
  
"Is something wrong with you're legs?" she asked, then she spotted the cuts on his arm and face. But she didn't say anything.  
  
Gill looked the girl up and down. She reminded him of someone. She had black hair, like he had now, and her skin looked pale white, like his own now. Her eyes were dark, like his.  
  
"I'm Michelle." she said, helping him up again, though this time she supported him.  
  
"Michelle?" the name startled him. It must have been a coincidence. "I.....I'm Gill." He wasn't used to his new body form.  
  
"Gill!" she looked just as surprised as he must have looked. "That's a.....er........nice name."  
  
There was a small silence as Gill leaned against Michelle for support. Gill tried to get off her and get in the hand of walking. He was a little wobbly, but he thought he could do it.  
  
"So...... do you think you're all right?" asked Michelle. Gill nodded.  
  
"I'm fine. Just a little spooked."  
  
(Ok, there's Gill's Tale Part I. Part II might be coming tomorrow! Depends on how much homework I have.) 


	2. Gill's Tale Part II

Gill's Tale Part II  
  
"Here, why don't I show you around?" suggested Michelle, taking his arm to help him walk straight.  
  
"I guess...." said Gill, looking around at where he was.  
  
Michelle took him up to an outdoor restaurant where millions of seagulls were trying to eat the humans' food. Gill couldn't understand what they were saying anymore.  
  
"Wanna get something to eat?" Michelle asked him.  
  
Gill realized how hungry he was, but he couldn't imagine ever eating the human food. Or whatever else they were eating. But he was yes anyway.  
  
The girl ordered something called a cheeseburger, and french fries. Gill just ordered the same thing. They sat inside, in silence. Gill noticed she was looking at his scars, as Nemo had done in the tank. How could he tell a human he got the scars from landing on dental tools from trying to escape from a fish tank? Gill said nothing. Nor did Michelle ask about them.  
  
"So, you don't know how you got here, do you." she said.  
  
"Oh, I...... was on a boat. It crashed on the way here and I must have drifted here." he said, trying to make an excuse. Michelle didn't make an odd reaction like he thought she would.  
  
"Oh.....where are you from? I think you said something about Sydney...."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'm from Sydney too." She looked away from him. There was another silence.  
  
"What's wrong?" Gill asked. He could see sorrow on her face, just as he could see it in Michelle the fish's face.  
  
No, don't even think of that. Gill told himself. Of course this person isn't Michelle. Michelle vanished long ago. If she DID turn into a human, she probably would be far away from here.  
  
"It's nothing." she said, almost looking like she was crying.  
  
"Doesn't look like it." said Gill.  
  
Michelle looked away for a second, then looked him in the eyes. "I.....I just lost someone special to me. He......left Sydney. I was hoping to find him again."  
  
Gill just couldn't believe it. It seemed so possible, but he was scared to actually believe this was Michelle. His Michelle. Why couldn't he believe it was her? Everything made sense. If she vanished in the cave, she must have turned into a human, like Gill had.  
  
Maybe he was just scared that somehow it wouldn't be her. Gill threw away most of his food.  
  
"Maybe you'll feel better if we take a walk?" suggested Gill.  
  
"I'd like that." she said, and he was sure he was her wipe a tear away.  
  
When they started their walk, Gill started to feel like he had known her his whole life. He started talking more easily with her, and they even joked around like they were old friends. He even got the walking straight.  
  
"Ohhh! Let's go on a boat ride!" said Michelle, laughing as she grabbed Gill's arm, rushing to one of the boats in the harbor.  
  
"Hold on you're running too fast!" Gill wasn't THAT good with his new legs yet.  
  
"Sorry." she said, laughing again as she slowed down.  
  
*  
  
The boat looked much bigger when they were right next to it. It didn't seem that big to Michelle though.  
  
They went up to the top, where it was windy and not that crowded. In fact, no one was up there except them.  
  
"Gill, I dunno why, but I....." she gestured with her hands, trying to get the right words out. "I've only known you for a few hours and it feels like......I dunno........"  
  
"Yeah, it's weird isn't it?" said Gill, facing her.  
  
Michelle was looking out towards the sky, her eyes seemed to be seeing something else. A smile was slipping out onto her face. Gill gazed at her, grinning.  
  
She must have realized he was looking at her. "What?" she asked. "Is there something on my face?" She started to wipe her face.  
  
"No........You just look so familiar."  
  
"That's weird."  
  
"Why?" Gill wondered why that was a bad thing.  
  
"Because you look so familiar too."  
  
There was a small silence, as Michelle turned toward him and gazed into his eyes, and he into hers........  
  
Memories suddenly swam into Gill's mind. Memories of him and Michelle. Good memories. Something in his mind was urging him forward, but he didn't know why. He had memories of the romance Michelle and he had. But he had no idea how humans had romance. Was his mind pushing him toward human romance?  
  
Michelle seemed to be pushed forward as well. It was as if an invisible person was pushing their faces closer together. More memories swam in. Gill was having so many memories at the same time that he could hardly see what was going on.............  
  
Suddenly there was a huge boom and the scene of the boat started to swirl and disappear around them. The bench they were sitting on disappeared from under them.  
  
"GILL!" Michelle screamed as she clung to the human clothes Gill the wearing.  
  
"HOLD ON!" was Gill's last words.  
  
*  
  
"How am I doing? Oh my goodness this is so pathetic. I was a fish before! I feel so silly having to learn how to swim again."  
  
*  
  
Michelle and Gill were back in the ocean, in the same city they grew up in. Gills tank friends were still there, worried sick about him.  
  
"There you are Gill! We were so worried!" said Brian, then he stopped dead. "Michelle, is that you?"  
  
"That's Michelle?" Gurgle whispered back to Peach.  
  
"Yeah! What kind of fish did you think it would be? She looks exactly like Gill so of course she's Michelle." said Bloat.  
  
Michelle swam up to Brian, and circled around him (Awkwardly. Remember, she hasn't swam with fins for a couple years.) "Of course it's me."  
  
"But.....I thought you were dead!"  
  
Michelle gave him a look. "Why would I be dead?"  
  
*  
  
Gill watched Michelle swim back and forth, back and forth, then back and forth again. Gill watched her, looking at her the same way he looked at her on the boat.  
  
"What?" she said, stopping. Gill just grinned, swimming up to her, and rubbing against her (Sort of like how Nemo did at the end of the movie when he says, "Love you, Dad."), "I missed you."  
  
"I missed you too." she whispered. Then she backed away again, looking at his scars.  
  
"I landed on dental tools when I tried to escape from the fish tank." he explained before she said anything.  
  
"Oh. I'm so sorry!"  
  
"It's all right." He rubbed against her again.  
  
Michelle's Tale Part I is coming soon! It'll be longer than Gill's Tale.......i tried to make Gill's Tale a bit longer, but I kept getting a little bit of writer's block :( 


	3. Michelle's Tale Part I

Michelle's Tale Part I  
  
"Gill....Gill look out!" Michelle shouted.  
  
"What?" but Gill was too late. A huge net was surging through the water, and Gill was suddenly inside it.  
  
"GILL! GILL!" she screamed for her life, trying to save him.  
  
"MICHELLE!" Gill had tried to scream. He remembered thrashing about, trying to break free.  
  
Michelle reached out of her fin, and tried to pull his free. But Gill's fin slipped, and the net pulled to the surface.  
  
"Wait for me! I'll get back!" she heard Gill's voice.  
  
"DON'T TAKEHIM AWAY!" Michelle cried helplessly as she swam towards the net. "Please!"  
  
Michelle gave up. Gill was gone.  
  
*  
  
The cave was dark, just as she remembered. It was a cave Gill and herself had found, when they were younger. Michelle swam inside and tried to cry herself to death. But that did nothing. She looked towards the light in the back. The light that Michelle had never been brave enough to go see what it was. She was sure Gill was brave enough, he just wanted to see her do it. Michelle gathered her fear and swam toward it.  
  
The light's source was a crystal. It was so pretty that it was almost impossible to look away from. It drew her closer, and closer, and closer. Then suddenly the tip of her nose hit the crystal, and then there was nothing but spinning and then everything went black.  
  
*  
  
Michelle's eyes snapped open. She recognized it was air that she was breathing, and not water. She sat up, and looked around her.  
  
"My fins! My stripes! MY TAIL!" she screamed in horror. She was a human now.  
  
She quickly got up and tried to walk on her new feet. It wasn't easy, but she finally figured it out.  
  
"All right, where am I?" she said to herself, looking desperately around her. She was on a beach, and there was a sign nearby. All she needed to read was New York City, and she knew where she was. She sat down by the sign, and pouted.  
  
"Now I'll never see Gill again. I'll never be able to see anyone ever again!"  
  
She sat hunched for a long time, until she realized she better make the best of it. She went to a nearby restaurant, and nearly gagged when she saw a fish section on the menu. Instead she ordered something called a cheeseburger.  
  
"This is actually pretty good!" she said to herself, then taking a bite of the french fries.  
  
She was eating outside, and she could no longer understand what the seagulls were saying.  
  
Finally she took a stroll around the city, and was fascinated by everything. All the lights, and the big square boxes she learned were TV billboards, and all the buildings.  
  
"I think I'll learn to like it here." she said.  
  
She had no home, or money, so she did what other people seemed to do. She held a can and the other people would give her small coins or a paper that was called a dollar bill. She learned to read then she bought a dictionary. After that she saw some people singing songs, and so decided to that while she held out her hat and got much more money. She gave some of her money to the other homeless people, then was on her way.  
  
She didn't buy a house. She bought a boat instead, that she could live in. It wasn't the best, but at least she wasn't seasick.  
  
She didn't have a job either. She just kept doing things she say people do on the billboards, like singing, or acting, and people would give her money. She even learned to play guitar.  
  
But she never forgot her life as a fish. She never forgot her love, gill, either. She cried all most every night. Even though she loved the human world and the ocean world, she wished everything would go back to normal.  
  
She prayed every night that gill wasn't on one of those fish menus in one of those restaurants.  
  
*  
  
She had been a human for almost a year now. She often found pools to swim in, but it wasn't the same. She couldn't find a place where they'd let her swim in the ocean.  
  
One day, after Michelle bought a shirt that said, "HELP KEE OUR OCEANS CLEAN," she heard distant yells off near the beach, and she ran towards it. Just when she got there she saw a boy about her age leap out of the water, then crash back in. Then he didn't move.  
  
"Oh my goodness!" Michelle said, then she swam out into the ocean to fetch him.  
  
He looked a lot like her. Same hair color, same skin color, and eye color. Other humans might think they were twins.  
  
He was unconscious for a while, and she laid him down on the beach, waiting anxiously for him to wake up.  
  
When his eyes popped open, he yelled, and staggered up, but fell again. He had scars on his face and on one of his arms.  
  
"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Michelle said apologetically  
  
. "No.... You didn't scare me.....I just don't.........Where am I?" the boys asked. He was breathing hard.  
  
"New York City." answered Michelle, reaching out her hand to help him up.  
  
"New York City? How......how did I get here from Sydney?"  
  
Michelle shook her head. "I don't know. You flew out of the water screaming, then you were just laying there. I came out to save you." she helped him up again, but the boy wobbled and fell back down.  
  
"Is something wrong with you're legs?" she asked. She remembered that was what she was like when she first turned into a human.  
  
The boy was looking Michelle up and down.  
  
"I'm Michelle." she said, helping him up again, though this time she supported him.  
  
"Michelle?" the name must have startled him. "I.....I'm Gill." the boy said.  
  
"Gill!" she looked just as surprised as he looked. "That's a.....er........nice name."  
  
There was a small silence as this "gill" leaned on Michelle for support. He tried to get off of her, but his legs were still wobbily.  
  
"So...... do you think you're all right?" asked Michelle. Gill nodded.  
  
"I'm fine. Just a little spooked."  
  
Part II coming soon! 


End file.
